GCIDE(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

A person engaging habitually in criminal activity, especially theft or robbery; an habitually lawless person, especially one who is a fugitive from the law.

Outlaw(v. t.)

To render illegal; to ban, prohibit, or proscribe under sanction of some penalty.

Origin: [AS. tlagian.]

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

outlaw(Noun)

A fugitive from the law.

outlaw(Noun)

A person who is excluded from normal legal rights.

outlaw(Noun)

A person who operates outside established norms.

The main character of the play was a bit of an outlaw who refused to shake hands or say thank you.

outlaw(Noun)

A wild horse.

outlaw(Verb)

To declare illegal

outlaw(Verb)

To place a ban upon

outlaw(Verb)

To remove from legal jurisdiction or enforcement.

to outlaw a debt or claim

outlaw(Verb)

To deprive of legal force.

Laws outlawed by necessity. uE000133130uE001 Fuller.

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Outlaw

In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute or kill them. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system. In early Germanic law, the death penalty is conspicuously absent, and outlawing is the most extreme punishment, presumably amounting to a death sentence in practice.
The concept is known from Roman law, as the status of homo sacer, and persisted throughout the Middle Ages.
Outlawry was a principally pre-Magna Carta phenomenon. It was by virtue of Magna Carta that the legal precepts due process and habeas corpus were concurrently established in 1214 thus commencing with their eventual enshrinement in judicial procedures which required that persons suspected of crimes are required to be judged in a court of law before punishment can be legally rendered. However antiquated, forms of outlawry continue to exist.
In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" made the pronouncement Caput gerat lupinum with respect to its subject, using "head" to refer to the entire person and equating that person with a wolf in the eyes of the law: Not only was the subject deprived of all legal rights of the law being outside of the "law", but others could kill him on sight as if he were a wolf or other wild animal. Women were declared "waived" rather than outlawed but it was effectively the same punishment.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Outlaw

owt′law, n. one deprived of the protection of the law: a robber or bandit.—v.t. to place beyond the law: to deprive of the benefit of the law: to proscribe.—n.Out′lawry, the act of putting a man out of the protection of the law: state of being an outlaw. [A.S. útlaga; cf. Ice. útlági—út, out, lög, law.]

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

outlaw

Song lyrics by outlaw -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by outlaw on the Lyrics.com website.